23 March 2012

It's been the fourth time now, that the teachers from the Mitrovica Rock School went to Holland for the yearly training week at the Rock Academy in Tilburg. But something special that we never did before, happened this year! Except of the teachers/coaches that go regularly, this time, the interns of the school (each for their instrument) joined also! :)

The big adventure started on Sunday, March 11. After we arrived, we unpacked and were getting ready for the week! The place where we were staying, called "Beekse Bergen",was like a big park, full of little bungalows in a really nice place, with a lot of trees, grass and a big lake! It was about a 10 minutes drive from Tilburg.

So on Monday we we're ready to go! We've gotten our schedules and plans for the week and started. Each of us had different workshops, in different classes, sometimes at the same time and sometimes not, sometimes as a group and sometimes as individuals.

Besides the work, we also went out, in the sun and enjoyed the excellent weather that we we're having, and at nights visited different places and restaurants on which we had dinner. Not to forget to mention the great dinner that Wendy and Dafina cooked for us, at the Bungalow where we stayed for 5 days! (thanks so much girls, you rock! ;) )

Also our dear Gerdien invited us for dinner one night, where we had a really pleasant time, thanks to the cozy house, atmosphere, nice people, jam session, and of course the super delicious food that her husband cooked for us! yummy!

And it was Ceni's birthday on Thursday, so our super talented cooks (Wendy and Dafina), were showing themselves again, by making a super dinner AGAIN! But this time, for 4 extra people, that we invited from the rock academy, which means for about 17 people! Really... good job! After a nice celebrating, we went out to watch some of the Rock Academie's students play live on a gig in the city.

We also visited Venlo a nice little city, and watched a band playing live. Another place we visited was the Hall of Fame, which is like a youth center, where young people could make gigs, parties, workshops, seminars, take band classes, skateboarding, and a lot more!

The days went unnoticeably fast! All I remember was arriving there on Sunday… and HOP it was Friday!

Friday was our last day in Tilburg and also the last day of workshops. We woke up, packed, and went to the Rock Academie, for the evaluation plan and at 3:30 P.M, we went to the train station, but not for going home! ..OH NO! The other adventure was waiting! We were heading straight to Amsterdam!! We had a whole weekend there, where we could get to know and enjoy the great city!

I have to say it was a very pleasant, relaxing but at the same time very efficient week on which we had a balanced working and social life. It was an amazing experience, especially for us (interns), because it was something totally new for us, but also for the teachers who were telling us that, it was also refreshing for them to have "a piece of youth" with them. It was a nice feeling to be there as part of the Staff of the Mitrovica Rock School (the grown ups;) ), get to know everyone better, and to be trained at a very professional level.

BOTTOM LINE:The Mitrovica Rock School still has it on, by keeping everything fresh, innovative and cool!

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Southeast Europe's first rock music school

The Mitrovica Rock School restores rock music culture to the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, Kosovo. Local musicians teach the city’s future rock stars. Throughout the region, the Mitrovica Rock School is known as an example of a new way to bridge cultural differences.